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This style of hat is hard to find – I cherish mine: washing them only as a last resort, placing it in a special gear spot, and reserving it for the really cold days. Yep, I’ve got more than one. I hoard them like a cycling survivalist.

I also realize how marginal a sport cycling is when a hat this functional isn’t hanging in every bike shop (instead we’ve got doo rags). The bill folds up when hot and down to function as a sun visor and keep precipitation off your face. The ear flaps fold, for cold and warmer conditions. There’s also enough material for tufting it up on top of your head for off the bike, apres-bike style.

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Ride Inside On My Trainer? Dear God Help Me.
Ai yi yi. The snow has dumped on Seattle and that means no outdoor training. ICK. This is my 3rd day going down to the basement and getting on my trusty fluid trainer. The first day was fine, just a 60 minute ride, pop on the headphones and listen to some BIKE TRAINING mix I’d made and before I knew it? Training done.

Day 2? Supposed to be a team ride. That means 2.5 hours minimum. On a trainer? You must be joking. But I’m trying to be consistent this year, so I dug out a Carmichael Trainright DVD on racing and off we go - me and all those indoor Carmichael “we really train with these” team riders in blue.

I decided to warm up before I turned it on, why? Stupid idea, because the “training coach” has you do a brisk warm up right there AND his kind of a warm-up generally wears me out so much that I start worrying about how I will continue to breathe when we get to the “racing” part. When I can get my mind to shut up and just ride the race, I have to admit, it is a great workout. Well, I couldn’t get my mind to shut up on this day, so I made it about 45 minutes into the DVD this time before I gave up chasing down the breakaways on the hills. Then I continued with my own endurance pace. Good idea since this was supposedly a “rest” week.